About

Oswaldo Aquique

Arranger and Venezuelan composer born in Caracas, Venezuela in 1970.

He began his musical studies at the Private Institute of Musical Education (IPEM) in Valencia, Venezuela with Betty de Vespa and Nelson Chalbaud, continuing his musical studies alongside his studies in Information Engineering, a field he currently practices.

He became involved in choral singing in 1984, being a member of various student, amateur, and professional choral groups, including Camerata Barroca de Caracas, directed by Isabel Palacios. For over 30 years, he has researched the history of the famous Venezuelan vocal group Quinteto Contrapunto, and the arrangements made by Rafael Suárez for this group, also transcribing into sheet music the arrangements that were considered lost. He contributed part of his archive and reviewed scores for the book Coro arrangements by Rafael Suárez (Vicente Emilio Sojo Foundation - 1999.)

His work as an arranger of Venezuelan and Latin American popular and folk music includes more than forty arrangements for various vocal configurations, some of which have been performed by prestigious groups such as the Ensemble Brahms de Caracas, Children's Choir of the Youth Symphony Orchestra of Lara State (Venezuela), Ensamble Ancora and Cantoría Larense, with one of his arrangements being part of the repertoire that this group performed during the 2014 World Choir Competition, winning first place in the competition.

He studied contemporary harmony, counterpoint, and composition with Carolina Hengstenberg, and choral composition with the Masters César Alejandro Carrillo, Dante Andreo and Luis Enrique Téllez.